Issue of 2018

Artificial intelligence (AI) is not solely confined to the robots we see on Silicon Valley start-up companies’ websites and in dystopian movies. Rather, in recent years, AI has become ubiquitous in our lives, from Microsoft programs running the numbers and organizing data to help us save time, to online purchases and banking applications, to Uber and Lyft rides, to smart personal assistants. Facebook, at some point, utilized AI to test its mobile application worldwide by releasing 60 different versions to analyze ones garnering the best user interaction. The number of students enrolled in Machine Learning courses in large tech universities in the US has risen from around 100 in early 2000 to a staggering 1000 students from 2010 onwards.

However, as the entire world witnesses the rapid rise of AI with bated breaths, the risks of using AI have increasingly materialized: the presidential election that brought Donald Trump to the White House was seemingly permeated by online bots that swayed voters’ opinions, a Tesla semi-autonomous vehicle crashed during a test run in March 2018, and Facebook and Cambridge Analytica have come under fire in the last month for harvesting users’ information. Conversations regarding potential consequences of AI have spread, including topics such as data harvesting, unemployment, unpredictable mistakes, etc. Thus, it is imperative that the growing field of AI be bound by international rules and regulations to minimize unethical implementations and increase the chance of mutual development towards principled and sustainable goals.

Against this backdrop, Artificial Intelligence World Society (AIWS) was founded to collaborate with world leaders and impactful individuals in the tech industry to discuss AI and its regulatory frameworks. 2018 marks the first year Boston Global Forum is focusing on AI. Our conference with the G7 Summit on April 25 in Boston seeks to motivate change from policy-makers and AI developers alike through the introduction of our AIWS 7-Layer Model for Next Generation Democracy. In addition, we will be announcing our first World Leader in AI: Angel Gurria. Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

BGF is committed to the beneficial development of AI and will continue to expand upon our 7-Layer Model for collaboration on an international scale regarding the ethical use of AI.